Pirates to skip struggling Charlie Morton in starting rotation

Turns out Charlie Morton can’t succeed on imitation alone.

Morton enjoyed some early season success after overhauling his delivery to mimic Roy Halladay, but has seen his ERA jump from 2.52 to 3.77 over his last three starts by allowing 17 runs (15 earned) in just 11 innings.

Some regression was probably in store for Morton anyway, as he has an underwhelming 50/35 K/BB ratio over 86 innings, but Pirates manager Clint Hurdle told Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com that he believes the 27-year-old right-hander is dealing with fatigue. The Pirates have two days off in the next week, so they will use it as an opportunity to skip him in he starting rotation.

“I’ve had some experience with a young staff developing at the Major League level,” Hurdle said. “Charlie has pitched a very large volume of innings for his history. I believe it’s more just road wear than anything else. You find ways to try and find preventative maintenance of injury. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

According to Brooks Baseball, Morton averaged just over 90 mph on his fastball during last night’s start against the Orioles, down a bit from his season average of 92 mph. Assuming he’s not dealing with an injury, fatigue could certainly be a factor.

Morton has already thrown 86 innings this season, putting him on pace to top his previous career-high of 168 2/3 innings back in 2009, which included 97 innings with the Pirates and 71 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level. Morton has never thrown more than 97 innings in a season on the major league level.